When we came across this story, BB the Jellyhaus office dog was soooo excited he started humming the ice cream van musical chimes, that was until we reminded him ‘you’re on a diet’! BB is now sat in the corner of the room rocking gently with a dry cornet!
So for all BB’s doggie friends who can persuade their humans to walk them in Regents Park this Saturday, they can look forward to the world’s first ice cream truck for dogs: the K99 will make an appearance this Saturday at the the Boomerang Pets Party in London’s Regents Park. The proceeds raised from this charitable ice cream truck will go towards funding the Berkshire Search & Rescue Dogs, a volunteer group assisting search and rescue teams.
The K99 van can be found at various parks this summer playing the cool theme tune to Scooby Doo rather than the traditional chimes. The two flavours that are to be served from the ice cream truck are ‘dog eat hog world’ – gammon and chicken sorbet topped with a doggy biscuit and wrapped in a cone – and ‘canine cookie crunch’ – an assortment of various dog biscuits and ice cream flavors. The group claims that a team of scientists conducted research to achieve the perfect recipe of ice cream for dogs through investigating the optimal balance of temperature, texture, and taste.
There are some things in the modern technological world that just drive us to distraction – from the inappropriately commercial behaviour of adobe to Photoshop naming conventions.
Fortunately, we are guided though the daily onslaught by these witty, crisply illustrated comic strips from Cleveland-based designer Brad Colbow. There’s a vast archive at www.bradcolbow.com
The answer is our Designer in Chief, well apart from the bling and 70s pornstar Magnum-style moustache.
Having set the scene with a respectable ‘top half’ finish in the recent British Duathlon Championships (merely a warm-up you understand as it “only” had two disciplines), the lean mean creative machine entered his first triathlon at the weekend, competing in the Stratford Triathlon.
On surveying the results this morning we were all very impressed by the fact that he finished on the first page of the results list…until we realised that there were 14 pages of finishers!
Out of a field of 1,300 competitors, Mark came 17th. In his first triathlon. Yes folks, 17th out of 1300.
As Han Solo would have said; “he can outrun Imperial starships. Not the local bulk cruisers, mind you, I’m talking about the big Corellian ships “.
Let’s start with a given: James Cameron is a great film-maker; any director with a CV that includes Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator and Titanic has earned that designation. Whether or not Titanic is on your Top Five Best Ever Films list is irrelevant; a film that can gross more than $1.5 billion knows a thing or two about what cinemagoers want.
With that in mind and as we have been tracking both the 3D and augmented reality trends for 12 months now, several of the team here went to see Avatar yesterday evening in order to sample Cameron’s latest release which, if you believe the marketing, is the future of cinema. In the seats beforehand there was much merriment as friends laughed at each other in their 3D glasses, although as they are now plastic and not card, they have the effect of turning everyone into a simulacrum of Jonathan Meades. The mirth turned to genuine amazement when the short animated just before the film showed the capability of the new technology; the dog and ball are certainly worth the 50p cost of the glasses and do go quite a way toward the price of the main attraction – “if the whole film is going to be like this”, we whispered to each other, “wow!”.
So what did we think? Well, a bit of a let-down to be honest. Firstly, the genre for the film may not have been the most effective choice for demonstrating the future of cinema. On several occasions, the rapid interchange actual and CGI sequences left you feeling that you were watching a commercial for a games console release, where the statement ‘representation of actual gameplay’ appears at the base of the advert. Yes, the CGI work is exceptional but you keep thinking ‘this is a computer game’. Now, part of Avatar’s significance is its blending of real and CGI imagery but not only has that been done before (think back to Tron, however clunky it may have been in 1982 – but wait to see what next year’s remake is like) and, as above, the stuff is out there already in TV ads so isn’t exactly innovative….
Those of you who read Marketing magazine’s regular online updates (Marketing magazine, yes that’s right Marketing magazine, only a short walk from this cinema) will have read an article on research that it carried out, via Lightspeed Research that went under the title “consumers ‘don’t trust’ social network sites.”
Their findings reveal that only 33% of consumers trust social networking sites (to provide the detailed independent information they need to make purchasing decisions) compared to 68% who trust other online sources of information such as search, product review and price comparison sites. The numbers for consumers not trusting social networking sites is 23% compared to 5% for other online sites.
On the surface, you can see what they’re getting at; do I really believe that my best mate has been having a wee for the past 14 weeks? However, looking into the numbers in more detail (Jellyhaus digs deeper than Bruce Willis) they are a indication not only of what happens when you create an entity in the digital laboratory and then let it loose in cyberspace but also of some of the misunderstandings about social media that are probably going to cause more than a few business and marketing agencies some issues in the future.
We were at a rather good (not to be confused with rathergood – if you don’t like cake now, you will after you’ve seen the video below) conference last week, Socialmedia09, organized by Mashupevents.
It devoted a lot of programme time and speaker content to ‘Trends for Social Media in 2010’ as it’s not only a potentially very important issue commercially but also, due to the evolving and somewhat nebulous entity that is, a very difficult question to answer. Like trying to staple jelly to a wall (answer for free: bloody hard. How do you think we got our name?)
What we think is interesting is the somewhat naïve way in which businesses think that, by simply being on Twitter or having a Facebook page, they are somehow guaranteed commercial success and control over these online communities.
No doubt some marketing departments and agencies had an easy ride when social media marketing was in its innovators stage; it was a one-sided sell to convince the board “this will be big and I mean BIG – customers will be able to tweet about how great our product is”. However, the converse is also true – if your offering or product is bad, customers will be able to tweet about that too.
The parallels with the early days of the web (ahhhh…remember Web1.0?) are similar; overwhelmed by the miasma of the TMT boom, everybody became – or at least knew a mate who was – a web designer and businesses queued up to get a website as they believed, in true Field of Dreams fashion, that if you had one, people would come. Back then there was a genuine first mover advantage if you were the only business in your sector to have a website, even if it was in glorious 33k dial-up and took a season to download. The argument now for being ‘on’ social media resonates with the same Field of Dreams belief but you are mistaken if you believe that simply being on social media is automatically a good thing and that your brand will be consumed by your loyal army of followers.
Social media doesn’t make a poor brand good but it can expose the wiring under the board or any flaws that user/consumers discover and now have a platform on which to air & share their views. Going back to the earlier point, online communities, whilst created digitally, are made of up real individuals and group theory dictates that the larger a group becomes, the more difficult it becomes to control its behaviour and influence the views of its members. You cannot create online communities and then not expect them to start to form their own opinions and act in ways that are at variance or even in contradiction with the brand or product that is their common interest or association.
As an individual, you may have thought you were the only one not to get how that product worked and so you didn’t ring up the customer helpline for fear of sounding ignorant. However, that apparent ignorance is allayed by the fact that you can now merge into the group and use its collective voice to convey your views.
What does this all mean?
Well, firstly, going back to the research findings, there is no guarantee that focusing your marketing strategy on social media will bring you improved sales or customer perception – it’s even worse if your reliance on social media has been at the expense of other, existing channels that you’ve sacrificed. Granted, social media is important and will become more so, as the entity created in the digital laboratory continues to grow and evolve with a resultant change in its characteristics and functions. However, it isn’t about mutual exclusivity; we don’t often come down on one side at the expense of another here but we will in this instant: it is not about A or B, with social media being the only right answer. We’re reminded of the much heralded ‘new economy’ that was supposed to emerge through creative destruction through the disruption that was the TMT boom; as it turned out, it wasn’t about old economy vs new economy but about a different economy in the future.
Secondly, we started researching a trend back in December 2008 called Right to Reply. It deals with the capacity of companies to respond to the TwitteRage that is the natural result of the herd instinct of a latent group when it alights on something of ‘interest’. If you’ve read this far, then we’ll share our view for the trend in social media in 2010 (the hint was in the opening image by the way); it isn’t about whether Twitter becomes worth more than the GDP of Peru but about companies & organisations becoming more visible on social media (the announcement earlier this month of the tie-up between Twitter and LinkedIn is a perfect example) and then using it as a right to reply.
To quote Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter; “the business use case of Twitter is turning out to be very important”; what we may see is that importance being perhaps a little less benign than we all thought.
We at Jellyhaus are beginning to question whether there is something deeper, darker and generally more conniving about John and Edward (subsequently known as ‘The Kennedy Twins’…is there a third one hiding at home behind the sofa, we truly hope not?!) staying in the X-Factor. It certainly isn’t because of their singing abilities or their sartorial elegance, as they look like the offspring of David Lynch and Flock of Seagulls’ Mike Score dressed in Teletubbie offcuts. Either that, or Terrance and Phillip (South Park) have had a Disney makeover and become real boys.
On Saturday, not only did they stay in but they received the highest number of votes out of all the contestants , leaving Danyl [SIC] Johnson and Miss Frank to fight for survival in the sing-off. Something Simon Cowell called ‘a total joke’….although with X-Factor, you could be forgiven for wondering to what exactly he was referring. Surely this can’t be because of the Kennedy Twins’ negligible cheeky charm and putative comedy factor?!
Note to Louis: We put our heads together here in the office and came up with our own song choice suggestion for them for this Saturday. We love it, love it to bits!
Complete with the X Factor judges, it was hard to resist – perhaps you can make up your own mind about which of the characters each judge would be – Louis there is even a dancing part for you towards the end! (N.B. Video contains strong language at the end).
Could this be the beginnings of the long overdue backlash against celebrity judged talent competitions? With the X-Factor and Britain’s Got Talent, the UK public are perennially bombarded with egomaniacal wannabes, who are mostly as deluded as they are desperate. Perhaps the public are voting tactically for the Twins because the possibility of them winning would create sufficient shock factor and dramatic impact to deliver the message ‘we’ve had enough of this tripe’.
Or perhaps it’s even more sinister than that…
A particularly vocal critic of the X-Factor here at Jellyhaus (you know who you are) believes it is more a deliberate effort by the production team to send John and Edward through from Boot Camp – Louis you can’t possibly have loved them or thought they were even slightly talented. For sure, we are not suggesting that ITV would risk another voting scandal (although when you’re as far up the creek as ITV is, anything is a paddle) but by putting them through, we are assured of Simon’s continued odium toward them and therefore the resultant 35p’s of millions of lemming voters. As is always the way, an innovative concept is over-milked and we are left with the freak show detritus who remain, aimlessly wandering the asylum, even though the Moron Liberation Front have broken open the cages and shown them the way to the outside.
Keep them in for long enough to keep the cash registers ringing, perhaps enough for the lovely Northern Stick Insect to a) indulge her guilty pleasure – who would want to stop her and b) stop ending every sentence with “I loved it, I love you to bits”.
If this is the case, the question is; have the public beaten ITV at its own game? No doubt the producers would never countenance the Kennedy Twins being allowed to win, on the basis that the only thing you could manufacture them into would be a fragmentation grenade, however the gladiatorial politics of the Colosseum can cut both ways – what if the public decides to keep them in? One can only hope that in a few weeks’ time, Simon Cowell finds himself like Joaquim Phoenix, having to give the thumbs up as the crowds tweet the names of their favourite competitors; John and Edward, John and Edward, John and Edward…
The judges having to admit that the public do know more than them? Just what would Cheryl Cole say…I love you, I love you all.
Volkswagen is looking to recruit a new kind of car critic: a straight talking, charismatic man or woman to review the Tiguan. The public will vote on who’ll become their People’s Reviewer and get to keep the Tiguan.
A new campaign by Volkswagen to support the launch of their latest vehicle, the VW Tiguan is called The People’s Reviewer. Over 1000 people applied for the role via YouTube and email entries. This was whittled down to nine contestants, who were then given the opportunity to drive the Tiguan for a week, try out its features, and record a short video review.
Starting September 3rd – just in case you weren’t aware, that’s my birthday by the way – the public will vote for the best, and the winner will take home a Tiguan. Voters stand the chance to win a weekend in Venice, one in Bath, a tour of some of the key highlights of London, a year of luxury and the opportunity to drive the Tiguan for three months.
If you check out the Facebook page you will see the final nine selected. Volkswagen comments:
We’ve had some brilliant entries in our search for The People’s Reviewer and we’ve shortlisted our nine favourite contestants. They’ve all been given a Tiguan for a week, with video camera, so they can put their great ideas on film..Our car critics now go head to head, three at a time, in each heat. The three contestants with the most votes will then go through to the final, a professionally filmed reviewing challenge. The overall winner will be crowned The People’s Reviewer and drive away in a Tiguan!
It’s not Friday – yet – but seeing some of the gallery pictures at Cinematical we found ourselves smiling with that warm, end of week happy feeling.
Firstly, it reminded us of the wonderfully original Star Wars TV, from Channel 4’s Adam and Joe Show (if you loved them, they’re now on BBC Radio 6 on Saturday mornings). For those of you who haven’t seen the hilarious things they did with toys, it’s on Channel 4oD plus Youtube.
Secondly, the first of the Cinematical gallery images got us thinking about applying the same process to our very own politicians. It seems like only a couple of months ago that we were all dissecting MPs’ expenses claims, although that does appear to have gone rather quiet; either it’s because they’ve all gone off for their summer vacation in the Fletcher Memorial Home or the ephemeral attention span of the populist media has switched its attention to bonuses. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if, upon their return for the State Opening of Parliament (new for 2009: the Houses of Parliament are sponsored by Cillit Bang – Bang and the dirt is gone!), our elected representatives admit to having read Plato’s Republic as their summer reading and that, as our guardians, they will now subscribe to his view that those who govern us should be barred from owning private property and only receive minimum wage.
Until that happens (we’re not holding our breath), make yourself grin as you imagine English politicians as Star Wars characters. John Prescott as Jabba the Hutt is an obvious starting point and here’s a couple more; this may prove to be hours of endless fun…
Psycho Donuts has taken donuts to a new demented level.
The owners of a new café in Campbell, California are offering a truly unique donut experience. The Frankenstein Donut makers have invented extraordinary flavours and combinations served by staff in white coats, know as ‘Psycho Nurses’ complete with a padded cell in the café for visiting inmates to sit in and gorge themselves on their sweet purchases of delight! The cafe doubles up as an art gallery and its decor is inspired by references to thriller/horror movies such as the infamous ‘Bates Motel’ from the film Psycho.
The owners say, ‘We have decided to bid a fond farewell to the tired, round ring of lameness, and the drab, time-weathered environment of donut past. Psycho Donuts has taken the neighborhood donut put it on medication and given it shock treatment!
Psycho Donuts are very unique and well, crazy. Our name comes with a commitment to not only be the craziest and fun donut experience you’ll ever have, but one of the most unique places in the South Bay!’
His talent is unquestionable, his dedication is admirable, his legendary status is unassailable and his kit is awesome!
Lance Armstrong has defied all odds again (I’ve lost count of exactly how many times) and returned to the professional cycling circuit in support of his global cancer-fighting initiative and the Lance Armstrong Foundation. As part of a long-term association with the bike manufacturer TREK, he has asked them to give him a helping hand in his quest for world cancer domination. The result is a series of hand-painted bikes, emblazoned by the world’s most coveted artists.
The collection, bizarrely named ‘STAGES‘, will be on show at the Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris before moving to the US this Autumn.
Amongst the colourful (and in my opinion, must-have) collection, the bike painted by our own Damien Hirst, aptly named ‘MADONE‘ particularly caught our eye. Lance will ride this bike on the Tour de France’s final stage on Sunday. The whole collection will be auctioned in the future and the Damien Hirst effort is expected to raise a figure nearing $1mil all (or most) of which will be going to the Lance Armstrong Foundation (Livestrong).
We’re having a whipround in the office so I can indulge my fantasy of:
Owning a better bike, and;
Being the campest cyclist on the road!
Any contributions to our cause would be appreciated! (or, maybe, on second thoughts, why don’t you give some money to Livestrong instead!)
